World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
The first expansion for World of Warcraft. An early Beta of the Blood Elf starting area was playable at BlizzCon. *See also: Category:Burning Crusade Sources *See Blizzard's official Burning Crusade page ** Townhall *** Blood Elves *** Outland ** Screenshots ** Artwork ** Wallpapers ** Movies ** FAQ *Game site articles: ** GameSpy (good article) ** IGN (good article) ** GameSpot ** GamePro ** Shane Interview (No New Troll, Gnone Starting Areas) ** Gaming Steve Pandaren Debunk (Not All Blizzard Verifiable) ** Gaming Steve Murloc Rumor (faked screenshot?) 12/15/05 *Magazine pages: 1, 2, 3, 4 (fixed), 5 Confirmed *Release Date **Tseric Says: "In all honesty, we wanted the expansion to come out earlier than it likely will." Not sure how "coming soon" this will be. *An increase in the level cap to 70, including 10 more talent points *New talents and spells. **They will be rounding out the existing classes better, by adding 4 or 5 completely new spells for the 50-60 level range for each character class. **The talent tree will be expanded (it was designed to be expanded). There will be a few more tiers in the talent trees, leading all the way up to 41 point talents. **They are looking to improve racial differentiation by carrying the concept they used in the Priest racial spells over to other classes. **Blizzard stated that Mages will be getting some form of invisibility back in the level 60 to level 70 spells. ** They are planning for hero classes in the future, but not for this expansion. *New tamable Hunter pets! ** "Someone asked if there will be new tameable creatures in the Outlands, and they responded 'that's a good question... yes'." BlizzCon Art Panel] *Two new playable races, including the magical Blood Elves (Alliance race not yet announced) *New starting zones in Quel'Thalas and beyond **Eversong Forest **Sunstrider Isle **Ghostlands *The entire new continent of Outland, reachable through the Dark Portal ** Hellfire Peninsula ** Bone Wastes ** Netherstorm ** Zangor Marsh ** Blade's Edge Mountains (CGW misprint Blaze Edge Mountains) *Portals to Other Worlds **"Things will get even crazier once you open portals into other worlds—three these zones are already planned for the expansion, with seven total that Blizzard knows about." *Many new high-level dungeons to explore in Azeroth, Outland, and elsewhere ** Karazhan in Deadwind Pass ** Caverns of Time in Tanaris, a natural labrinth, with portals leading to different eras in Azeroth's past, protected by ancient bronze dragonflights. *** Thralls Escape from Durnholde Keep -- In this wing of the instance you must assist Thrall in escaping from Durnhold Keep where he has been captured by Aedelas Blackmoore. *** Opening of the Dark Portal -- In this wing you must protect Medivh as he opens the Dark Portal in the Black Morass *** The Battle of Mount Hyjal -- In this Epic Raid wing players must band together to defend the World tree. Battling out with the Demon Lord Archimonde and his Burning Legion Forces. *** The Battle of Hellfire Peninsula -- While still in planning stages this is said to be a PvP Battleground where Horde and Alliance battle it out on Draenor. ** Zul'Aman bordering Eversong Forest and Ghostlands ** Hellfire Citadel in Hellfire Peninsula ** Unnamed Lady Vashj Instance (rumored to be in Zangor Marsh) ** Auchindoun in Bone Wastes ** Tempest Keep in Netherstorm ** Black Citadel *New flying mounts which are only useable in Outland at lvl. 70 **While they couldn't add them to the main realms, as they'd break the game, that the Outland can be built from scratch can avoid that. **Tom Chilton: "We'll put some high-level content in very hard to reach places - effectively places that you'll need a flying mount to reach. It's a dream for explorers, and you can draw lines to the Zelda-esque level construction where a new ability opens up aspects in a previously explored area." *Many new and dangerous monsters *New world bosses *Hundreds of new quests *Hundreds of new items *A new profession: Jewelcrafting *Socketed items *No new classes **Tom Chilton: "The primary reason not to do it is so we can focus more on developing the character classes we already have. As we go from 60 to 70 we can add abilities, extend all the talent trees and work on the concept of heroes. Even though things are going to evolve, it's still very important for us to dedicate enough time to do heroes that feels really good and captures the spirit of the heroes in Warcraft III, and we don't short-change it by focusing too much on new character classes." *Fighting the Legion in new Worlds **Chris Metzen revealed in the Developer Panels that Illidan closed all the Dark Portals of Outland. Nevertheless, MagusRogue, a World of Warcraft RPG Game Designer from White-Wolf revealed the following: "The portals were shut down by Illidan, actually. However, some of the quests in the Burning Crusade Expansion have you re-opening these and going to new dimensions, fighting the legion in new worlds. Should be awesome." *And much, much more... Rumored NOTE: Rumors are unsubstantiated and commonly false. *'Rumored Races:' Forumgoers and fansites everywhere are discussing dozens of different possible Alliance races for the expasnion pack. None have been officially confirmed or denied directly from Blizzard by a blue post or a press release. **At Blizzcon, creative director, Chris Metzen had this to say regarding the new race: "When we finally reveal alliance race, it's gonna blow your mind. At first, you are gonna say 'whaa?', but then 'wow...'. It's gonna be awesome." **According to GamerGod, Caydiem said: "Do you really think we'd introduce a race of jungle cat-people that has absolutely no relation to Outland whatsoever? ;)" Debunked? Rumors that appear to be false. *'Debunked Races:' Some of the races have been debunked by major fansites or official sources. For more information, see Rumored Races page. ** Pandarens as the new Alliance race. See The Lore of World of Warcraft, page 2 at GameSpy. ** Tigons as the new Alliance race. See Caydiem comment above. ** Worgen as the new alliance race. Whoever first thought this up admitted it was fiction, however this does not officially debunk this as a possibility. *'Debunked Classes:' ** Spellbreaker – A blood elf unit from Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. IGN debunked this: No new classes, nor do they intend to introduce any for the foreseeable future, because of the balancing headaches. *'Debunked Areas:' ** Redesigned Echo Isles - Debunked by Shane Dabiri: The new starting zones will be for the new races. ** Redesigned Gnomeregan - Debunked by Shane Dabiri: The new starting zones will be for the new races. ** Undermine - Since most of this information came from the same post where everything else was debunked, this is very unlikely. ** Northrend - Since most of this information came from the same post where everything else was debunked, this is very unlikely. It will most likely be an entire expansion itself. Category:Games Category:Coming Soon Category:Burning Crusade